If you have shopped at the Home Depot in Cleveland, and previously shopped at the Home Depot in Chattanooga, you will notice an obvious difference. In a time when we have lite beer, lite ice cream, and lite (or "light") most everything else, we now have a "Home Depot Lite! After shopping at the original Home Depot in Atlanta back in the 70's, and the one in Chattanooga starting when it opened in the mid 80's, I, like many others, had hoped that we would one day get one of their stores in Cleveland. From the first time I shopped at the new store here, I knew it was different - and certainly not different in a better way. As compared to their other stores I had previously shopped in, their product selection fell far short of my expectations, as well as the depth of their inventory. I had noticed at the Home Depot in Chattanooga over the past several years, the customer service and help wasn't nearly as good as it used to be, and that certainly carried over to the new Cleveland store as well.

Back in the 70's, we used to drive to Atlanta to shop at one of the first Home Depot stores. We were amazed at the selection, but even more amazed at the level of knowledge and service we received from their employees. According to an article in Business Week Online, dated June 19, 2006, the founders of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus and Arthur Black, had a philosophy of having their employees to "make love to the customer." The

Joe Kirkpatrick

article went on to state that many employees you now encounter at Home Depot treat the customers like "bad dates."

What happened to Home Depot? Now America's second largest retailer, several years ago, an ex-military man named Bob Nardelli become CEO. Instead of keeping focus on customer service and keeping the business "do it yourselfer" oriented, he decided to streamline the company and focus on gaining more contractor business. During the several years as CEO, he usually treated himself and his top management to daily catered meals in his executive suite, while at the same time cutting full time jobs to part time. In fact, by the time he resigned last year, part-time workers now make up 40% of the companies employee roster. In 2005, Home Depot paid out 90 million in profit sharing to its employees, but in 2006, despite record sales, Nardelli cut it to 44 million. No wonder they have a lot of employees with a "don't care" attitude!

Newly appointed CEO Frank Blake has stated "2006 was a tough year," and "2007 will also be a difficult year." He has pledged to spend 2.2 billion this year to improve the company's retail business, which includes hiring back "master trade specialists" to aide the do-it-yourselfers in each department. On March 14 and 15th, Home Depot Board members Thomas Ridge and Angelo Mozilo issued statements that they will not continue to serve on the board when their term expires. This could be an indication that the new chairman is serious about aiming the company in the "old direction."

Will it really change? Only time will tell. Home Depot is a prime example of how one man with the wrong idea at the top of a huge company can do so much damage. Hmmm - not too different than the government, is it?
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